How to get most out of Linkedin Recommendations
Most LinkedIn users agree that the most valuable asset to your profile is to have recommendations.
Recommendations from clients, peers and suppliers authenticate the statements that you make in your resume and bringsignificant benefits. You may state that you are an inspiring leader, but a recommendation from your previous employees that supports this adds a significant weight to your profile. This, in turn, helps you attract more future interest and helps drive career opportunities.
LinkedIn recommendations remain underutilized and misunderstood, nonetheless. If you are looking to build the value of your LinkedIn profile, then you should observe the following tips for getting more from your recommendations.
Recommendations need to be timely and relevant
As your career develops, some recommendations will become more or less relevant than others. A recommendation from five years ago, for example, will not be as valuable as one from last month. That means that you should be consistently identifying opportunities to obtain recommendations and following them up, wherever possible. The most important recommendations will be those on your current role and the one before it, because they demonstrate what you are achieving NOW. That is what a recruiter is most likely to be interested in.
Recommendations need to be from the right people
Your recommendations should be an exercise in quality not necessarily quantity. Your co-workers can, for example, give you a recommendation, but in the real world 20 recommendations from co-workers may still not be as powerful as one from your boss. As such, you should look to attract recommendations from the most influential people relevant to a role. That could be your boss, but your boss's boss could be better. On a project, the sponsor or key stakeholder is potentially more relevant and influential than your program manager.
You shouldn't be afraid to ask for recommendations
Recommendations won't necessarily come rolling in unprompted. In an ideal world, everybody would always have time to do this sort of thing, but this isn't an ideal world. Don't be too pushy, but don't be too afraid to ask for a recommendation, either. Timing is everything. You should aim to ask for a recommendation when things are going well (obviously) or when a key delivery has just been successful. You want your skills and achievements to be fresh in the mind of the person recommending you.
You shouldn't be afraid to write recommendations
When push comes to shove, the person with the biggest interest in getting the right recommendations is you. Similarly, people may be willing to recommend you but may not have the time or inclination to actually sit and write the thing. Don't be afraid, therefore, to make the offer to write the recommendation for somebody else to submit. You can ensure that it focuses on what you want and is written in the right way. Failing that, you can at least ask the other people to include certain points and activities.
You can have too many recommendations
Recruiters are often suspicious of LinkedIn users with too many recommendations. It could suggest that they are truly awesome, but it's more likely that they're just good at getting people to do them favors, or that they're friends with a lot of people. Opinions vary, but a threshold of 1 or 2 recommendations per role is probably a reasonable aim. Recruiters will, realistically, only look at 2 or 3 recommendations maximum, so it isn't worth your while collecting them like badges.
Use recommendations wisely and your LinkedIn profile can help boost your career goals significantly.
